Historic Boston Inc. has completed acquisition of St. James African Orthodox Church in Roxbury, the former Norwegian Free Evangelical Church, built in 1910, and is continuing to work with the Highland Park neighborhood to determine specific new uses for the 50 Cedar St. property, according to a statement from the nonprofit.

Historic Boston closed on the transaction late last month, paying Brookline-based City Realty Group $1.4 million for the building and land.

“We are grateful to The Life Initiative, a community investment fund created by Massachusetts-based life insurance companies, for providing HBI financial support for the purchase,” Kathy Kottaridis, executive director of Historic Boston, said in a statement.

The church, which had been under threat of demolition, will be preserved under a plan devised by the office of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Historic Boston Inc.

HBI expects to undertake a full rehabilitation of the building and to restore the grandeur of the 2-story sanctuary space.

The church is in distressed condition, having been neglected for years. HBI is planning a $5 million adaptive reuse effort, tentatively as a coworking space for area entrepreneurs and artists in the church’s sanctuary, with affordable housing units on the church’s ground level.

The historic building was built for a Norwegian immigrant community in the early 20th century and was sold in 1955 to St. James African Orthodox Church, a congregation of Caribbean immigrants and faith strongly associated with the followers of activist Marcus Garvey.  The property was permanently protected this year as a Boston landmark, preventing its impending demolition.

Located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Roxbury, the property includes an 8,000-square-foot existing church building and a parking lot of approximately 9,000 square feet.

HBI is exploring partnership opportunities with several private developers for the construction of some new housing on the parking lot portion of the site, which would partially defray costs of HBI’s purchase and work to restore, redevelop, and create new uses for the church.

“We look forward to working with the community to find a feasible and positive re-use that complements the neighborhoods’ goals and preserves a century of neighborhood history,” Kottaridis said in a statement.

The Kuehn Foundation and the Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust are supporting due diligence and predevelopment costs for the project.